Chapter 17:
...and Development

“...So we'd taken his locker, which was locked, and turned it upside down so it was standing bottom up. When he finally opened the thing a bunch of things fell out and everything was messed up.” Rainbow and Scootaloo were snickering as we sat wrapped in blankets, telling stories to one another of the haunted type and others.

“He must have been so pissed off,” Rainbow said, holding back a laugh.

“At first yeah, but looking back at it he can laugh about it too,” I chuckled back, a wide smile on my face. It fell a little when I reminded myself that there was a good chance those memories may be all that I'd have left of them.

“I'd love to meet them if we ever got the chance, they sound like people who'd appreciate a good prank,” Rainbow chuckled, nudging me with a wing.

“Heh, yeah, they're like family really. We went through lots together, that connects you to them in ways others don't,” I replied.

“So do you have more stories?” Scootaloo eagerly asked, a bright smile on her face and cheeks still stained from tears due to previous laughter. I took a quick look at the time, determining that it would probably be best if we all got some sleep.

But hey, when had that ever stopped me before?

“Well there was this one time we had a two-day long exercise,” I grinned, both Scootaloo and Rainbow leaning forward with interest. “We were put into a forest on a road and told to set up a vehicle checkpoint. That was pretty much the entire instruction we'd gotten, the idea being was to see how creative we'd get setting up a checkpoint. The officer that was going to see how we did was part of an allied country's armed forces, by the way, so he had some prejudices in how he thought how we'd do based on what he expected of his own forces."

"And you guys went well past that I take," Dash snickered.

"By a mile," I laughed heartily, "Over that two-day time span we went and dug out a bunker pit, setting up our heavy machinegun with a good view over the road. We also got a load of fallen trees and made spikes out of them, digging those in as well in such a way a vehicle had to swerve to miss them and slow down that way. I don't think any of us slept more than two hours over those two days but none regretted that, the face that officer made was totally worth it."

"What was he expecting though?" Scootaloo asked with a giggle.

"Well, he later said that he'd have expected his own armed forces to set up some basic barricades, nothing more, not a position that would be assault resistant."

"Showed him," Scootaloo said continuing her giggles but getting interrupted by a yawn.

"I guess that's the signal we need to go to sleep," I smirked, booping the filly on her nose.

"Ahhh, one more pleeeaaasseee?" she begged, giving the biggest puppy eyes she could.

"Nope, not using all my stories in one go," I smirked, moving over onto the bed and got myself comfortable. Scootaloo had one side of the bed and Rainbow snuggled up to me on the other side of the large bed. We'd already brushed our teeth, well, the two ponies had, and washed before starting the storytelling.

"Good night, Scootaloo."

"Night..." the small filly almost immediately fell asleep, snoring softly.

"You too, Rainbow."

The pegasus buried her face in my chest fluff and made the most adorable little purring sound. "g'night."

My eyes fluttered open as the first rays of light entered the library's guest room, the two sources of snoring either side of me indicating I was the first one to wake. Rainbow had attached herself to me once more and it didn't seem like she would be letting go until she woke up...

Oh dear god please no.

My face turned red as I prayed to the deities above that Rainbow would not wake up, any trace of sleep having completely disappeared.

Bad timing. Extremely bad fucking timing.

A very bad case of morning wood was pressed up against Rainbow's belly while the mare snored blissfully unaware of my predicament. There really were only two options; try to get loose and risk waking the pony or hope it would recede before she woke.

There was movement on the bed behind her, followed by a fawn. "Jack, Rainbow, you awake yet?"

Damnit.

"Yeah, Rainbow isn't though," I answered without turning.

"Right... I need to use the bathroom, be right back." The filly got out from under the sheets and left the room as quietly as she could. That returned me to my predicament as my hard-on was still firmly pressed against the pegasus, her snoring becoming less loud.

That's not good.

Prying myself loose really wasn't an option any longer, even if I got loose I could run into Scootaloo and that would really be awkward.

"Hmmn... Jack..." Rainbow muttered at least being somewhat asleep still.

Stay asleep, please stay asleep.

She didn't.

Rainbow's eyes opened, staring up at me contently, she seemed to still be groggy but that disappeared the moment she saw the slightly panicked look in my eyes. Her mouth opened to ask what was wrong but only a squeak came out as she felt what had me riled up.

I'm so dead.

The door swung open again, Scootaloo having finished with her business on the toilet. She noticed both of us were awake now. "Morning, Rainbow."

"G-Good morning," she stammered, hiding her face in my chest as her face was on fire. Scootaloo raised an eyebrow but didn't comment on it.

"Hey Scootaloo, want to check if Spike is already up for breakfast?" I asked of the filly who just got more confused. "He's usually up pretty early."

"Okay?" she said turning to head down to the kitchen. The moment the door closed Rainbow pushed off of me, her wings erect as she plopped down onto the floor on her butt, her forelegs between her hind ones.

"I-I can explain," I stammered, pulling the sheets from the bed around me to cover up my private parts.

Dash's blush lessened somewhat as the groggy veil from just waking up receded and allowed her to pull her mind somewhat out of the gutter. "Morning wood?" she asked.

"Y-Yeah." The two of us stared at each other for a bit before Rainbow started giggling, giggles soon spreading until both of us were rolling of laughter. "Look at us, awkward as if we're a pair of teenagers."

"I know," Rainbow managed to get out through her laughter. "We should take a shower, that should help you out down there."

"For sure. You go first, I'll wait 'till you're done," I chuckled, Rainbow smirking and shaking her head.

"I said we should take a shower." Dash grinned as she pulled the bedsheets off of me and dragged me to the door.

My feathers were still a little wet as Dash and I joined Spike and Scootaloo in the kitchen for breakfast, Twilight notably being absent. "Morning Spike, sleep well."

"Yep, thanks!" the little dragon smiled, placing a stack of pancakes on the table. Scootaloo's mouth was already watering at the sight of the large stack of food. "Dig in, I'll go get Twilight. She should still be lucid enough after only one all-nighter."

Surprisingly though, before Spike could leave the kitchen Twilight came in, dragging her hooves as she didn't seem to be in the best mood. She slumped down in one of the chairs, taking a pancake, drowning it in syrup and wolfing it down.

"You seem to be in a good mood," I commented sarcastically.

"Your armour," she grumbled, "It's... impossible."

We all took a seat at the table as Spike put down a second plate of pancakes and gave us all plates. "How so?"

"I tried every single analysis and replication spell, technique, and alchemical mean to replicate even a little of the stuff... I just can't. The material is so advanced that unless it's properly made there is no way I can replicate it without it being so critically flawed it may as well be useless," Twilight grumbled.

"Wait, you're giving up?" Rainbow said in surprise.

"Yeah, you'd usually go on for days and then figure out how to do something anyway," Spike said with equal surprise.

"I can't do it alright!" Twilight exclaimed, resting her head on the table next to her plate. I reached out and placed a claw on her shoulder comfortingly.

"I gave you that thing knowing there was a chance you couldn't do anything with it. Don't sweat it, Twilight."

She looked up at me, annoyed. "There's a war going on if you hadn't noticed. Ponies haven't really let that sink in yet but if we don't get an edge soon a lot of them are going to die!" she exclaimed.

I locked eyes with hers, my features hardening at the accusation. "You aren't telling me something I do not know, Twilight. I have been fighting said war, remember?" I scolded her before softening again. "Don't take the burden of every life on your shoulders, Twilight, you are just one pony doing her best." I looked over to the filly at the table who looked really uncomfortable at the conversation. "Let's drop this, we still have a stack of pancakes to go through."

"Yeah! Dig in!" Rainbow exclaimed, the mood at the table taking an upswing as we all enjoyed the treat. We laughed at a few jokes as they were thrown around and enjoyed the pancakes while they lasted.

"Those were some good pancakes, Spike," I complimented as I helped move the dishes to the sink to be washed.

"Pinkie gave me some pointers on those, helped a lot," Spike replied, filling up the sink and starting to wash. Before he got done with the first plate though, he let out a burp, a flame followed by a scroll materializing. Twilight snatched it up from the air with her magic and read it.

"What does it say?" I asked as she rolled it back up.

"The Princesses are coming here to Ponyville," she announced.

"Both of them?" I stated with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes," Twilight confirmed to me. "They wish to see you, they will be here before noon."

"I see," I replied flatly, there really was only one topic they could come to me to see about. "Rainbow, can you take Scootaloo into town? I'll look for you when you have time." Rainbow glanced at me wearily but did as told, taking Scootaloo on her back and making her way out of the library. Spike gave me a nod too as I went up to get my rifles and brought them to the library's main room, I took a seat and closed my eyes, waiting for the princesses to arrive.

It took less than an hour for the building's front door to open and a small group of guards to enter, two Solar and two Lunar guards. They were followed by their respective Princesses, my eyes locking with theirs. "Princesses."

"Specialist jack," Celestia replied, taking a seat across from me at the central table. "It's good to see you again."

"You finally made your decision then?" I said, noting the guards that took position in a half-circle behind the princesses, their eyes fixed on me as if expecting resistance.

"You knew it may come down to this," Celestia said with a sigh, pressing her hooves together on the table in front of her. I looked over to Luna to see what her mind was on the matter but she seemed to agree with her sister from what I could see.

"At least throw me a bone. Have you at least considered the griffins' position?" I asked, one claw on the table and another below as my eyes scanned the guards.

"Those questions are mostly academic until we can get a hold on the situation, but-" Celestia responded.

"Humor me," I stated frankly.

Princess Celestia sighed. "After this rebellion has been put down I will make sure the treaties with them will be revised, but I cannot let the griffin rebels set the terms. If that were to happen it would send a message to other nations surrounding Equestria that bites can be taken out of us."

"And you swear that you will do this?"

"Is our word not good enough?" Luna spoke up, with a piercing glare that was hard to hold. "It was enough for thou to help us at Griffinstone."

"Griffinstone was a unique situation, you know that Princess. And even though I'm willing to help, I do not know either of you very well," I responded, breaking Luna's gaze and looking back over to Celestia as she leaned forward a bit.

"Pass me your knife," she ordered, I hesitated. "I require it for what I am about to do next."

Still not completely sure what she wanted to do I unsheathed the thing and passed it over. The royal guards tensed a bit as the princess took the knife, not knowing if that was a signal to move in.

"Sister you cannot really be-"

"He needs the reassurance Luna, I will not send ponies into battle against a superiorly armed foe if I have the means to give them an equal chance," Celestia cut her off, lighting her horn as she brought the knife down on her hoof and drew blood. Her magic then changed colour, turning into the same shade as the red liquid coating the blade. "I swear that when this rebellion is put down the treaties will be addressed and adjusted to take into account the needs of the Griffins."

A wave of magic washed over me, the air feeling as if it was charged with static electricity. Though it wasn't said out loud, I somehow knew she would not be able to break that oath.

Luna looked at her sister in shock, not believing what she'd just done. "Since when do you partake in blood magic?"

"I have catalogued almost every tome of the dark arts that exists sister, though I do not use that knowledge lightly. One should be careful with one's soul as you are very much aware." Luna scowled as her sister said that but said nothing further on the topic.

"Even if I am willing to help, I will not be able to give you exact replica's of my weapons..." I held up a talon as Luna tried speaking up to scold me. "...Your material science is not advanced enough, but, I shall help you to the best of my ability in designing weapons and teach you the tactics to use them." Celestia let out a sigh of relief and gave me back my knife, I cleaned it off and re-sheathed it. Raising the claw I'd held below the table, I pushed the pin back into the grenade I was hiding there and stashed it into a pocket on my vest.

Both the princesses scowled as they saw me pocket the explosive as they'd already heard about grenades from me. "That was not one of those 'smoke grenades' was it?"

"No. That one would've gone boom."

That didn't do much to remove the frown either Princess' face but there were more important things to discuss. "What is it you require, Specialist?"

I smiled as I mentally started making a list of stuff I'd need and what kind of skills I'd require from the ponies helping me. "Well..."

Author's Note

I had quite a bit of trouble seeing where I wanted to take this thing, nuance makes things complicated, but I think I have a good image in my mind of where I want to end up now. I'm sure people will agree and disagree in the comments from what they think is the smarter decision so keep it civil.

Edit: doesn't seem like it published properly so I made a new chapter and pasted it in
Edit 2: Seems like my mature filter was turned off for some reason so I didn't see it show up in my feed

Remember that comments are like authors' food, we gain energy from them. Constructive criticism is welcome.